The Pleasant Valley School Board and the teachers’ union came to an agreement in March regarding pre-observation conferences.

A grievance was filed on Dec. 20, by the Pleasant Valley Education Association on behalf of about a dozen teachers in two schools regarding formal classroom observations. Formal observations are done by a school’s administration.

The formal observations were done during the 2022-2023 school year, and were conducted without a pre-observation conference, which is required in the collective bargaining agreement with the school district.

PVEA President Christopher Jarrow declined to say which school administrations were involved.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding made available at the school board meeting on March 14, a hearing was held in January and the union and school district came to an agreement.

In that agreement, it states that the school’s administration will hold a pre-observation conference with the “Association member” (teacher), as well as a post-observation conference. The pre-observation conference must take place within two weeks of the formal observation, even if the date of the formal observation isn’t announced.

Also, the teacher is permitted to fill out a pre-observation questionnaire for the administrator.

The post-observation conferences must be held within one month of the formal observation, and the administrator’s ratings and feedback have to be provided before this conference.

The teachers who had a formal observation done in 2023 without a pre-observation conference have the option of having a pre-observation conference held and the formal observation redone, or accept the one that was done.

The administrations are allowed to continue the practice of walk-throughs and use these as part of the overall evaluation process. Walk-throughs will not be conducted on flexible instruction days.

“I’m pleased that we were able to work with Dr. Konrad and his team to resolve this issue,” Jarrow said.

The cost of the arbitrator’s fee was split between the union and the school district.